Colliding
by HungryDemon
Summary: Short one shots of love, collections of memories and thoughts and lives colliding.
1. Flowers

A/N: This is a collection of rather short one-shots of Dragon Knights couples, each with a theme taken from one of the several "100 Themes Challenge" lists on deviantart. Enjoy. The idea may have been accidentally stolen from PurpleFireDragonof Dusis, though it appears we are using different lists.

* * *

Rune held the flower in his hand, between his thumb and forefinger. Nohiro had identified it as a light flower, a name Rune should have known. Now it was embarrassing, the things he had taken for granted when he still lived with the faeries. All those beautiful things that had vanished: the flowers, the Water Realm, his sleeping Tintlet. He remembered this place once glowing with light flowers. He had come here with Tintlet many times.

The faint scent of the flower they had found made him remember her. She had never been far from his mind, and even more now that he could not be near her. Rune squeezed his eyes shut. His love. His soulmate. She had given up her waking life for him. Failing to protect her from that fate might have made him feel as though he had not fought for his own life. Rune knew better. She was still alive, and the waterlights and trees were doing their best to keep her safe.

Without the Water Dragon, without sealing Varawoo, he might have really failed her. He was still weak; not powerful enough to wake her. He had at least regained his healing powers. Someday, soon, he would be able to wake her.

The flower in his hand made him remember one early spring morning, dew drops still hanging off the flowers. Tintlet held so many blossoms in her hands. Her face shone. They both had their duties back in the Water Realm, but they had escaped for the morning. Rune sat next to her in the glow of her smile. "Tintlet, I love you." It was as obvious as saying the sky was blue,

She turned her gorgeous eyes to Rune, and gave him that smile, the one that he would do anything for. "I love you too, Rune."

He sat next to her and held her soft hands. Would that they could go on like this forever. Waterlights floated ahead and a sea of light flowers blanketed them.

Even though they had been here many times before, something felt different about today. The smile suddenly left Tintlet's face. "Rune, I think someday this place will be a very important place for us."

Rune looked up from the flower in his hand. He knew in a second Nohiro would be demanding his attention. He and the little girl were both waiting for Rune. Before he set the flower back down, the little girl looked up with her huge eyes and smiled. For a second, everything made sense. Then, it was gone.

_A very important place for us._


	2. Eyes

Rath stared at his red eyes in the mirror. Even after the countless battles, even after he and Cesia defeated Nadil, even after he truly did become the Dragon Lord, he still had red eyes. He still looked like a demon, and whenever he looked at himself, all he saw was a walking reminder of Nadil.

Cesia said that she was able to let all the things inside of Rath out and make him whole again. But how could he ever be whole _again_ when he never was complete to start?

True, he was happier than he had ever been since he was a child, before his fateful meeting with Karl on that mountain. After countless ages of fighting, only peace remained. Even the Castle retained an eerie quiet that it had not known in years. He smiled at himself in the mirror. It was all over now. He should be glad.

Except he was still the new Dragon Lord, a task that he had never wanted. So many people had already tried to twist his fate in so many ways. His destiny had been fluid; he could have been the Demon King or the Dragon Lord. Even death would not provide an escape, not now that it seemed Cesia would be sticking around. And there was no hiding the fact that he was glad about that.

In fact, here she came now.

"Are you ready yet?" She demanded. "Everyone's waiting for you."

Rath turned around to face her, taking his eyes off the mirror. "It's just Thatz and Rune, right?"

"And Ruwalk, and Tetheus, and Bierrez!" Cesia put her hands on her hips. "We need to start making plans for rebuilding Draqueen. If the Castle, our stronghold, is a wreck, think of how the rest of the city is."

Rath shot Cesia a glance, clearly saying, _I never asked for this job_.

She rolled her eyes in return. "There's a lot of people waiting for you."

Rath turned back to his reflection. "Cesia, you said that you made me whole again. My own person."

"Rath, stop it," Cesia interrupted before he could get another word out. "I knew you would get like this sooner or later. You aren't pieces of other people anymore. You are _wholly you_, and your self-pity isn't going to change that. Nadil is gone. It's all over. So _enough_."

He blinked, but he shouldn't have expected anything different from Cesia. He smiled again, a real one. His doubts didn't make a difference. His red eyes didn't change a thing for her. It didn't matter if he was pieces of others or if he really was whole. To Cesia, he was complete.


	3. Precious Treasure

Thatz jumped awake. Something cold and wet dripped down his back, soaking through his shirt. He heard Kitchel laughing behind him, carrying a handful of ice. One of her friends, someone he didn't know, cackled alongside here. He turned to them, "Shut up!"

"No wonder your gang didn't get the treasure," Kitchel said with a grin a few minutes later after she stopped laughing. "Their best guy was sleeping through the whole thing!"

It was just one of the many times they would clash. No matter what direction they went in, they always cross paths again. Thatz had never expected to see Kitchel again after she robbed him and skipped town, but even then they couldn't stay apart for too long.

Even at their worst moments, like the night Kitchel drank too much and Thatz was there to hold her hair back when she got sick. She would return the favor another night by helping him walk home instead of right back into the bar.

There was a time on a boat during a fierce storm when, just for a second, he had saved her from falling overboard. He had never seen her eyes so wide before, and it was the last place he would have expected to suddenly become speechless. In the end it didn't matter, though, because they were tossed out of the boat anyway.

They tormented each other, helped each other, and it always seemed inevitable that they would come back to each other, no matter what.

And now they did again at the Dragon Castle, awaiting Tetheus's return from a mission that kept him away for weeks. Before he arrived, Thatz drank champagne with his friends, toasting to the Black Dragon Officer's safe return. In honor of the occasion, there were a few rounds of "Pin the Face on Hard-Ass Tetheus."

The large doors in the entryway opened, the game was hid in a rush. Kitchel ran out to greet Tetheus, throwing her arms around him and holding him tightly. Thatz watched her chatter away at him, taking him by the hand and leading him somewhere.

Thatz returned to the others, Kitchel still on his mind. She was his most precious treasure. Someone had stolen it away first.


End file.
